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8800GT, HD4850, or 9600GT?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - 8800GT, HD4850, or 9600GT?

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What card should I get when I upgrade my psu and gpu? (They both suck atm.)

(zotac?) 8800GT for $180
(Zotac?) 9600GT for $135
(Dont remember) HD4850 for $250

I'm wondering which one would be the best for my purposes:

Resolution: Currently 1280x1024, but I want to get a new 22" monitor 16##X10##
I have an Intel E2160 @ 1.98ghz (will it bottleneck at 16x10? or at 1280x1024?)
Rig will need to play UT3 at native res (I HATE scaling down.) with Textures at high(est) and everything else at medium at the least! (Reason for this is Renegade-X- http://www.moddb.com/mods/renegade-x )

I know that the 8800 and 4850 are overpriced, but I'm from Canada, so I'm used to that.

These prices aren't too much more than most of the prices at tigerdirect.ca ($10-$25, before rebates. REbates can't always be trusted in though because they get lost in the mail, or the company figures out excuses not to pay you.)

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicat [...] CatId=3670

This 8800gt seems too cheap to be true.... However, I would rather purchase a card from a physical person/location.

However, If I do end up buying my card online, should I use windows or linux when making the purchase? Probably linux....

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Go 9600 GT. I game at 1920x1200 with one and my UT3 gameplay hits 45FPS at the low end, maxes out the full 60 usually. Anything else for your purposes would be overkill.

Reply to themyrmidon

a: a radeon 4850 isnt 250 LOL its like 180$

b: 4850. nuff said.

buy the damn card online.

Reply to Physicz

One more reason, if you play UT3 you WILL want PhysX (AMAZING!)

Reply to themyrmidon

PhysX is enabled on all 8000 and up? Or is it for only the 8800, 9800, 260, 280? Does the 9600gt have physx enabled???

I wholeheartedly agree the physx F***ING RULES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exiV3qxI2BI

Message edited by idisarmu on 08-10-2008 at 03:37:10 AM

Reply to idisarmu

Just a tip here ... Tigerdirect.ca is overpriced .... do a search with www.shopbot.ca and you will find better prices at places like NCIX and DirectCanada.

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Reply to smartel7070

Yes, the 9600 GT is PhysX enabled.

Reply to themyrmidon

Sorry to crash the physics party, but those cards can't run both physics and graphics concurrently. The deal is that you buy two cards and instead of SLIing both for graphics, you use one for graphics and one for physics.

4850 does better than the 9800GTX+, and it destroys the 9600GT. For $180, its a steal.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to HPCE_Larry

The 4850 hands down will run circles around the other 2 cards. As you turn up the resolution, in most games the CPU is not the problem. That is where your graphic card takes over and does it's job.

Reply to jitpublisher

damn..... oh well. It appears that UT3 isn't entirely physx based

Oh well.

The 4850 will definitely be bottlenecked methinks, especially since my mobo won't allow oc past 2.02ghz (Unless it's the powersupply that holds me back.)

EDIT: For future proofing: The games I plan on getting would be the optimized Crysis sequel, Far Cry 2, and UT3 then. UT3 shouldn't be a problem, but far cry 2 and crysis are demanding. I would be satisfied with medium settings and a few high ones on the other games.

Message edited by idisarmu on 08-10-2008 at 04:13:32 AM

Reply to idisarmu

The 4850 is by far the best card youve mentioned, and the best bang for buck. The fact youll be going to 16x10 only makes your card work harder, so the 4850 is the way to go. Youll see some cpu "bottlenecking", but itll bottleneck all 3 of these cards, so get the fastest one, the 4850

------------------------------ I went drifting, thru the capitols of tin, where men cant walk and cant freely talk, and sons turn their fathers in
Reply to jaydeejohn

Try newegg for better pricing...

Message quoted 1 times

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Reply to leon2006

i would say single 4850, or if you wanna shell out a bit more you can get two cheap 8800GT's for not too much more and more performance than a GTX280...

Reply to V3NOM

HPCE_Larry wrote :

I think you need to go do a bit of research mate.

Reply to randomizer

4850 should be fine; but if you really wanna choose the nV cards, Zotac brand is fine.

Reply to desidude006

PhysX will work alongside graphics on a single card.
The bottom line is that if all you're playing is UT3 and you want everything at 16xx x 10xx then a 9600 GT is all you need, anything else would be a waste of money.

Reply to themyrmidon

At those prices, the 8800GT 512. $70 premium isn't worth it to me. Try buying elsewhere, you might find lower prices.

Message edited by pcgamer12 on 08-10-2008 at 09:07:24 AM

Reply to pcgamer12

Are ATI cards better than NVIDIA overall for any game? What about games in isometric top view like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3?

Reply to Gnyipw

leon2006 wrote :

Try newegg for better pricing...

Newegg doesn't ship to Canada.

Reply to yadge

Depends on the game and card in question.

Reply to pcgamer12

Starcraft is more CPU bound, as is Diablo to a lesser extent. Both should be less graphically intensive than UT3.

Reply to themyrmidon

HD 4850 is around $180 for non OC version

Sapphire's OC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102760

Around $200

non OC 4850 referrence

Message edited by pogsnet on 08-10-2008 at 12:54:50 PM

Reply to pogsnet

HD 4850 is the most highly recommended video card in the latest THG's rig recommendation. HD 4870 ranks second.

Message edited by pogsnet on 08-10-2008 at 12:59:26 PM

Reply to pogsnet

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